Today’s Gospel announces the ‘end’ of all our ‘external’ points of reference, human as well as religious. But it is not the end! NO, it is the beginning of the Kingdom of God…
The young girl, above at the piano, scarcely thirteen-year-old, is Mademoiselle Catez. The charming daughter of a French army officer, Elisabeth enjoyed travelling, summer vacations, the beauty of nature, sports, the company of friends, dancing, musical concerts and even learning English! Many young men had their eyes on her, but her close friends understood that whilst in their company, Elisabeth was living “inside of herself”.
Before dying at the age of 26, as a Carmelite sister, Elisabeth of the Trinity composed a collection of scriptural passages at the request of her married sister, helping her to “find heaven on earth”. On the second day of the retreat the meditation focused on the words “the Kingdom of God is within you.” Drawing from the Carmelite tradition, Elisabeth pointed at the deepest part of our soul, inaccessible to the world and to the devil. Here, at the centre of our soul, is the Kingdom of God, the living presence of the Trinity. The deeper we go to unite ourselves to the God within us, the more we enter into His life and become centred in Him, the more we are transformed, to the extent that we become a living Kingdom of God. “It is in that little heaven which He has made for himself in the centre of our soul that we ought to seek Him and to live.”
When all ‘outside of you’ disappears and can’t guide you anymore, remember, God lives ‘within you’, his Words will guide you.
He is your soul and your soul is He.
Merci Mademoiselle Catez!
